Tuesday, February 21, 2017

We made it through the 13 hour plane ride and onto the
ship. All went pretty normally. The only major impact has been a totally
screwed up schedule for pill-taking and meals.
This time the chemo is slowing me down more than before, but I am still
able to make my way to the buffet!

Actually we are in a class on the ship that allows us to use a specialty
spa restaurant. The portions are almost
comical. The first night we had a small
steak, about 3 square inches in size, accompanied by a single spear of
asparagus cut in half and two cherry tomatoes, each cut in half. There was a salad that was about 4 forkfuls
and an appetizer that was about three spoonfuls. The piece de la resistance was a small scoop
of "no sugar added" ice cream. I visited the buffet later that
evening. :-)

I am truly trying to stick to the low sugar diet, but the
temptations are many. On a good note,
Kathe probably won't gain weight.

Seriously, I am having about 5 small meals per day. We have gotten the ship to make smoothies for
us using our powder, which means we don't have to use the Nutrabullet we so
carefully packed. I can usually find
enough greens, meat, and other items to very roughly stay on my diet. The toughest to find on a cruise are fresh
veggies and nuts. In the last port I
bought a couple of pounds of cashews, macadamia nuts, and walnuts. This is much better than many of the
available snacks.

I need to note that I am experiencing some loss in taste,
but I am convinced that the AHCC+ that I am taking is returning some of my lost
taste buds. I am much more religious
about taking the 1 gram dosage per meal now.
I CAN taste the food--I just need to ask others if they think something
is really tasty or bland. Sometimes it
isn't me at all.

One thing that you should know is that New Zealand and Australia have very strict rules on
bringing non-processed food and medicines into the country. Definitely leave your pot at home! Anyway, my
point is that we would have had any nuts confiscated, had we tried to bring
them in. As it is, we faced a hassle on
my medicine coming into NZ and are worried about Australia because I don't have the
"scripts" or the pill bottles for my many medicines and
supplements. Australia is the most strict. The only good news is that Australia is our
last day, although parting with several hundred dollars of pills will make me
very annoyed.

I did wear a mask on the plane and on the way to the ship,
but have not used the mask on the ship.
I am trying very hard to avoid being close to anyone. I wash my hands at least 10 times per day. So far so good.

One thing is a pain in the tail. Largely due to the chemo and liquid intake, I
have to use the bathroom every two hours.
When traveling this can be annoying.
I have managed well so far. 'Lots
of bathrooms in New Zealand.

The bottom line is that I am continuing to do much better
than I thought. I only have the
occasional stomach ache due mostly to trapped gas and am about 20% more tired
than usual.